Iran, US in war of words after US drone shot down

Iran on Thursday shot down a US military drone it said was
on a spy mission over its territory but Washington said the aircraft was
targeted in international air space in “an unprovoked attack”.

The incident fanned fears of wider military conflict in the
Middle East as US President Donald Trump pursues a campaign of to isolate Iran
over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and role in regional wars.

It was the latest in an escalating series of incidents in
the Gulf region, a critical artery for global oil supplies, since mid-May
including explosive strikes on six oil tankers as Tehran and Washington have
slid toward confrontation.

Iran has denied involvement in any of the attacks, but
global jitters about a new Middle East conflagration disrupting oil exports
have triggered a jump in crude prices. They surged by more than $3 to above $63
a barrel on Thursday.

Saudi Arabia, Washington’s main gulf ally, said Iran had
created a grave situation with its “aggressive behavior” and the kingdom was
consulting other Gulf Arab states on next steps.

“When you interfere with international shipping it has an
impact on the supply of energy, it has an impact on the price of oil which has
an impact on the world economy. It essentially affects almost every person on
the globe,” Adel al-Jubeir, Saudi minister of state for foreign affairs, told
reporters in London.

Tensions flared with Trump’s withdrawal last year from world
powers’ 2015 nuclear accord with Iran and have worsened as Washington imposed
fresh sanctions to throttle Tehran’s vital oil trade and Iran retaliated
earlier this week with a threat to breach limits on its nuclear activities
imposed by the deal.

US BEEFING UP MIDEAST FORCES

Upping the ante, Washington said on Monday it would deploy
about 1,000 more troops, along with Patriot missiles and manned and unmanned
surveillance aircraft, to the Middle East on top of a 1,500-troop increase
announced after the May tanker attacks.

Iranian state media said the “spy” drone was brought down
over the southern Iranian province of Hormozgan, which is on the Gulf, with a
locally made “3 Khordad” missile.

A US official said the drone was a US Navy MQ-4C Triton and
that it had been downed in international air space over the Strait of Hormuz,
through which about a third of the world’s seaborne oil exits the Gulf.

Navy Captain Bill Urban, a spokesman for the US military’s
Central Command, said Iran’s account that the drone had been flying over
Iranian territory was false.

“This was an unprovoked attack on a US surveillance asset in
international air space,” Urban said. The drone, he added, was downed over the
Strait of Hormuz at approximately 2335 GMT - in the early morning hours of
local time in the Gulf.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry insisted the drone had violated
Iranian air space and warned of the consequences of such “illegal and
provocative” measures.

Independent confirmation of the drone’s location when it was
brought down was not immediately available.

A statement from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards said the
drone’s identification transponder had been switched off “in violation of
aviation rules and was moving in full secrecy” when it was downed, Iranian
state broadcaster IRIB reported.

IRANIAN “RED LINE”

“Our air space is our red line and Iran has always responded
and will continue to respond strongly to any country that violates our air
space,” Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, told
Iran’s Tasnim news agency.

The MQ-4C Triton’s manufacturer, Northrop Grumman, says on
its website that the Triton can fly for over 24 hours at a time at altitudes
higher than 10 miles (16 km), with an operational range of 8,200 nautical
miles.

The Trump administration sought on Wednesday to rally global
support for its pressure on Iran by displaying limpet mine fragments it said came
from an oil tanker damaged in the June 13 attacks, saying the ordnance closely
resembled mines publicly displayed in Iranian military parades.

European diplomats have said more evidence is needed to
pinpoint responsibility for the tanker strikes.

SANCTIONS NOOSE

The US sanctions net draped over Iran, scuttling its oil
exports and barring it from the dollar-dominated global finance system, have
hammered Iran’s economy, undoing the promise of trade rewards from the 2015
deal to curb its nuclear ambitions.

Trump has sent forces including aircraft carriers, B-52
bombers and troops to the Middle East over the past few weeks. Iran said last
week it was responsible for the security of the Strait of Hormuz, calling on
American forces to leave the Gulf.

Tehran has also said it will shortly suspend compliance with
the nuclear deal’s curbs on its uranium enrichment, meant to block any pathway
to nuclear weapons capability, and threatened to disrupt oil shipments through
the Strait of Hormuz.

But Trump – who sees the nuclear deal as flawed to Iran’s
advantage and requiring renegotiation – and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei have both said they have no interest in starting a war.

Heightened US-Iranian tensions have also stoked concerns
about increasing bloodshed in countries where Iran and its Saudi-led Gulf Arab
regional rivals have long been locked in proxy battles for geopolitical
dominance in the Middle East.